PANAMA CITY, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Up to 4,000 migrants, most of them Haitians, have passed through the treacherous jungles of the Darien Gap in Panama on the Colombian border as they make their way north to the United States, two Panamanian government sources said.

An impromptu camp arose in recent weeks on the U.S.-Mexican border that included Haitians, adding to President Joe Biden’s migration policy headaches. At its peak on Sept. 18 there were some 15,000 people there as Haitians flee economic, political and social chaos in their homeland.

The camp was cleared of thousands of Haitians by Friday, with most remaining in the United States for now and others expelled on deportation flights or returned to Mexico.

Between 3,500 to 4,000 migrants are passing through migration reception stations in Darien and Chiriqui, said a source with Panama’s security ministry, who requested anonymity. The group includes Cubans and other nationalities, the source said.

Meanwhile, some 16,000 migrants are stuck in the northern Colombian beach town of Necocli, awaiting their turn on limited boat transport toward the Darien Gap, where smugglers guide groups through one of the most dangerous and impassable regions of Latin America. read more

Colombia and Panama agreed last month that 500 migrants could cross per day, but local officials have repeatedly urged them to raise the quota, saying it is far too low to keep pace with the up to 1,500 migrants who arrive in town daily.

Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday that more than 80,000 irregular migrants have traveled through Panama this year. He called for international assistance, saying his country is spending its limited budget on migrant care.

So far this year, 88,514 migrants have entered Panama through the Darien jungle, according to figures from the National Migration Service, and Panama went from receiving an average of 800 migrants in January to 30,000 in August.

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United Nations Headquarters, New York (CNN) The tens of thousands of people sheltering in the shadow of Texas’s Del Rio bridge have gone, but their trials continue. And they will not be the last, as Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry warned on Saturday.

Some have been e  xpelled to Haiti by force, others convinced to cross the border back to Mexico. A number remain in limbo in the US — luckier than most, because they will have the chance to make their case before an American immigration judge.

Addressing the border crisis before the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Henry pointedly reminded the world that “many countries which are prosperous today have been built through successive waves of migrants and refugees.”

Global inequality is the fundamental driver of such crises, he also said. “The problem of migrants must remind us that human beings, fathers and mothers, will always flee misery and conflict and strive to offer better living conditions to their children,” he said.

“Migrations will continue as long as there are pockets of wealth on the planet, while the majority of the world population lives in precarity.”

For many Haitian migrants, this past week was only one more hardship in a series that had begun months and even years ago. Some of those who made their way to Del Rio had originally fled Haiti after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, and worked in South America for years, supporting families back home with their earnings.Del Rio camp cleared as last remaining migrants depart

But racism, tightening immigration laws and the economic fallout of the pandemic have forced Haitians in countries like Chile and Brazil to look for something new, say migrants and advocacy groups. Those pressures have not gone away, which raises the prospect of future crushes of migrants at the US border.

“Haitian migration has been roaming Latin America for more than a decade,” said the interior ministry of Chile in a statement to CNN. “In Chile, their exodus is increasingly notorious, given the current working conditions that do not favor their insertion in the market, even with a visa and work permit.”

Djimy Delice, a Haitian migrant activist who lives in Valparaiso, Chile, says the recent passage of a new immigration law has made it difficult for undocumented migrants to regularize their status, and to access education, housing and health services. “What we know is that if (migrants) have a very uncertain journey (to reach the US), nothing here is certain either,” he said.

In Brazil, another common origin country for Haitian migrants, Gilbert Lafortune says he is still contemplating heading for the US.

The 49-year-old father, who lives in Sao Paulo, says soaring inflation has made everyday survival impossible for those who are also supporting families back home in Haiti.

“With the rising inflation, the cost of everything has gone up: light, gas, water, food …The minimum wage in Brazil is 1,100 reais (a little more than $200), so you can’t pay rent, food and also help your family,” he said. “Therefore, a lot of people need to leave and go to the US.”

Concerns over speed

“As of this morning there are no longer any migrants in the camp underneath the Del Rio bridge,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced Friday — a logistical feat, but one that raised concerns in NGO and advocacy circles over how humane the processing of nearly 30,000 people in so short a time could have been.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi earlier this week slammed the expulsion of some migrants under Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows border officials to quickly expel migrants as a pandemic public health precaution. The policy was ruled illegal by a judge but remains in effect until the end of the month.

“The summary, mass expulsions of individuals currently under way under the Title 42 authority, without screening for protection needs, is inconsistent with international norms and may constitute refoulement,” Grandi said, referencing a principle in international law that forbids returning migrants to countries where they would face irreparable harm.

Haiti is wracked with an epidemic of violent crime, political turmoil and devastation from a recent earthquake. Large swathes of its capital city, Port-au-Prince, are controlled by gangs, who operate sprawling kidnapping-for-profit operations.

Haiti Prime Minister orders firing of top prosecutor in presidential assassination case

More than 2,580 Haitians — including 563 children — had been sent back to Haiti as of Friday, according to the International Organization for Migration. The agency, alongside the Haitian government, is scrambling to receive all the people being dropped off by US planes.

But it is unclear whether local officials and humanitarian workers are equipped to deal with complicated individual cases, given the scale and speed of the expulsions. The IOM and the UN point to UNHCR as the agency responsible for any refugee claims among the deported, but the refugee agency on Friday told CNN its presence in Haiti is “very limited.”

Meanwhile, Haitians who eventually crossed back into Mexico — an estimated 8,000, according to Mayorkas — also face an uncertain future. In the southern town of Tapachula, where many migrants have been sent, Haitian women describe xenophobia and discrimination, said Gretchen Kuhner, director of Mexico’s Institute for Women in Migration. “People don’t stop for them to cross the street, even if they’re carrying a baby or even if they’re pregnant,” she said.

‘Shocking images’

Haiti Foreign Minister Claude Joseph traveled to New York on Thursday, meeting with US State Department officials ahead of his country’s appearance at the UN General Assembly.

At the top of the agenda was recent footage of American Border Patrol officers on horseback raising whips toward migrants earlier this week, Joseph said. “Shocking images. We expressed our concerns about the mistreatment of Haitians, Haitian migrants.”

“They deserve better treatment and we are very appreciative to the American people who have spoken up,” he also said.

Mayorkas on Friday told press that he recognized the images “painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism” and insisted that they “do not reflect who we are.” The officers involved are no longer with migrants and an investigation into the incident is ongoing, he also said.

Haitian officials were negotiating with the US about the migration crisis “on a daily basis,” according to Joseph. He sees it as a diplomatic victory that some Haitians have been allowed to remain in the US and be heard by an immigration judge. Approximately 12,400 are expected to get a chance to appear in immigration court.

But some of those who are already back in Haiti are furious with their leaders, whom they say failed to stand up to Washington and should not have accepted the deportations.

“All other countries humiliate us as Haitians. We have no respect; we have no value,” deportee Eddy Teverme told CNN upon arriving at Port-au-Prince airport this week.

“They told us to accept the reality and board the plane. They said life does not end when you return to your country,” he said. “But the only question I need to ask my leaders, the official who signed the deportation agreement, do they have jobs for all these Haitians who have been sent back to the country?”

Reporting contributed by CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez in Washington, Claudia Rebaza in London, Juliana Koch in Sao Paulo, Karol Suarez in Mexico City, and Melissa Bella and Pierra Bairin in Port-au-Prince.

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Study says pandemic cut life expectancy by most since WW2

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced life expectancy in 2020 by the largest amount since World War Two, according to a study published on Monday by Oxford University, with the life expectancy of American men dropping by more than two years.

There were greater drops in life expectancy for men than women in most countries, with reductions in life expectancy in 27 of the 29 countries overall. There have been nearly 5 million reported deaths caused by the new coronavirus, a Reuters tally shows. read more

Sydney set to unveil freedom roadmap as more curbs eased

Australian authorities announced plans on Monday to gradually reopen locked-down Sydney, unveiling a two-tiered system that will give citizens inoculated for COVID-19 more freedoms than the unvaccinated for several weeks.

Movement restrictions the most populous state of New South Wales will be lifted gradually from Oct. 11 to Dec. 1 as vaccination rates push through 70%, 80% and 90%. However, people who are not fully inoculated will not be allowed to join in renewed activities, like community sports, dining out and shopping, until the final date. read more

New York may use National Guard to replace unvaccinated healthcare workers

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is considering employing the National Guard and out-of-state medical workers to fill hospital staffing shortages with tens of thousands of workers unlikely to meet a Monday deadline for mandated COVID-19 vaccination. Some 16% of the state’s 450,000 hospital staff, or roughly 70,000 workers, have not been fully vaccinated, the governor’s office said.

The plan, outlined in a statement from Hochul on Saturday, would allow her to declare a state of emergency to include licensed professionals from other states and countries as well as retired nurses. National Guard officers with medical training would be used to keep hospitals and other medical facilities adequately staffed. read more

Scientists map antibody binding sites on virus spike

A new COVID-19 “antibody map” is helping researchers identify antibodies that will be able to neutralize the coronavirus even after it mutates, according to a report published on Thursday in Science. Using hundreds of antibodies collected from COVID-19 survivors around the world, a global research team mapped out exactly where each antibody attaches to the spike protein on the virus surface, which it uses to break into cells and infect them.

The researchers looked for – and found – antibodies that target sites on the spike that are so important for the viral life cycle that the virus probably could not function without them. Those sites are likely to remain targets for vaccines or treatments even when the virus mutates. “If you are making an antibody cocktail, you’d want at least one of those antibodies in there because they are probably going to maintain their efficacy against most variants,” said coauthor Kathryn Hastie of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California, in a news release. read more

Vaccinated pregnant women pass antibodies to babies

Pregnant women who get an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 pass high levels of protective antibodies to their babies, new research shows. The findings, reported on Wednesday in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology – Maternal Fetal Medicine, indicate that “the antibodies that the mother is building to the vaccine are crossing the placenta and that’s likely to confer benefits for the infant after it’s born,” said coauthor Dr Ashley Roman of NYU Langone Health in New York City.

It is not clear whether the timing of vaccination during pregnancy is related to antibody levels in the baby or how long the antibodies last.

“We don’t know how long those antibodies stick around in the baby,” Roman said. “But the presence of these antibodies in the cord blood, which is the fetus’ blood, indicates that the baby also has potential to derive benefit from maternal vaccination.” read more

US: Confusion Over COVID Booster Shots

States are bracing for confusion as the Biden administration begins rolling out booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Chaotic and at times disparate messaging from administration health officials over the past month has culminated in a complicated set of recommendations about who should be getting booster shots, and why.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel on Thursday recommended an additional dose of Pfizer’s vaccine for people aged 65 and older and nursing home residents, along with people between 18 and 64 with underlying health conditions.

The panel grappled with the question of whether people in potentially high-exposure risk occupations should get a booster, but ultimately decided against recommending it.

Panel members indicated they wanted to avoid giving a recommendation that was too broad, since there was not enough evidence that vaccinated people under the age of 50 were losing protection against severe disease and hospitalization.

But in a decision announced after midnight on Friday morning, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky broke with the advisory committee and signed off on a broader policy.

Starting immediately, anyone between the ages of 18 and 64 who is at increased risk of COVID-19 “exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting” can get a third dose.

Experts said Walensky’s decision will make boosters available for health care workers, teachers, grocery store workers and other frontline workers. President Biden on Friday said there could be 60 million Americans who fit the bill.

But essentially, anyone who wants a third dose can get one, even though they may not technically qualify.

“There’s going to be confusion. If we are going to create guidelines that are essentially making the vaccine available to almost everyone, the simplest solution is, make it available to everyone,” said Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at NYU and Bellevue Hospital. “The best public health programs are the ones that are simple and easy to understand and clear, and the more complexity you build into it, the more difficult it is to roll out.”

Gounder, who advised the Biden transition team on COVID-19, has been critical of the administration’s fervent push for boosters, and said the evidence for a third dose based on occupation was mixed at best.

“You have to step back and ask the question, why is it that we’re vaccinating people in high risk settings? Is it because they as individuals are at high risk, or is it because it would be disruptive to the workplace,” Gounder said.

Breakthrough infections can be disruptive, especially for health workers. But if the goal of a booster shot is mainly to allay fears and anxieties among frontline workers, Gounder said, “there just isn’t data to back that a young healthy health care worker is actually at risk.”

Expanding the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster to frontline workers is still narrower than what the administration envisioned.

Last month, Biden and top health officials, including Acting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Janet Woodcock, Walensky and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced that a booster shot program for all adults would begin the week of Sept. 20, well before the FDA and CDC had examined the evidence.

The administration initially wanted people to receive boosters beginning eight months after their second shot, in an effort to reduce transmission amid the spread of the delta variant. But the scientific advisory panels decided on six months.

While officials were careful to say the booster program was contingent on the FDA and CDC giving the green light, the move was criticized by scientists inside and outside the government. They argued there wasn’t enough evidence that showed protection against severe illness and hospitalization dropped to levels that warranted a booster.

During a White House briefing on Friday, Walensky acknowledged there isn’t any way for states or the federal government to ensure that people are adhering to the eligibility criteria.

“What we are doing now is self-attestation,” she said.

In deciding to give boosters based on occupation, Walensky aligned CDC policy with the FDA’s authorization. But neither agency specifically defined who qualifies as a high risk worker.

Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said states are not expecting additional clarity from the federal government.

“That’s going to be complicating, because it’s not clear. I think everybody knows that health care workers are in that mix … but there’s all kinds of other occupations or institutional settings” that could meet the definition, Plescia said.

Adding further confusion, a third dose of both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines was authorized in mid-August for people with severely weakened immune systems.

The administration’s initial plan called for boosters of all three vaccines to begin at the same time, but it wasn’t clear until recent weeks that only Pfizer would be able to submit clinical evidence in time.

States have been preparing for the green light from the federal government, but Plescia said it would have been easier if all three shots were authorized at the same time, or if states had flexibility to mix shots from different drug makers.

While there’s no evidence about mixing a third Pfizer dose with two doses of the Moderna vaccine or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson shot, Plescia said state health officials will have a difficult time conveying that to members of the public clamoring for boosters.

Those overpromises now create a messaging challenge, as state and federal officials need to manage expectations.=

“It’s much easier to make a political announcement than it is to do the hard work of analyzing science and making evidence based recommendations,” said Richard Besser, a former acting CDC director.

“The fact that we won’t have recommendations for people who received a Moderna and J&J because the companies haven’t gotten the data in …  that’s gonna cause heartburn all over the place,” said Besser, who is now president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“People didn’t have a choice of what vaccine they got. They’re all effective, but only one of them can get boosted right now.”

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WORLD STATS

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